The invention relates to processes and devices for monitoring facilities in the chemical industry.
In the chemical industry, and included herein are also industries for developing and utilizing deposits {and sources} of liquid and gaseous raw materials, and specifically in particular crude petroleum and natural gas, facilities for extraction, for transportation, for processing and for refining the raw materials and the semifinished and finished products obtained from them are operated in halls as well as often also outdoors. In particular the operation of facilities in which work with flammable and explosive materials takes place, frequently is carried out outdoors since here substances escaping unintentionally from the facilities do not cause any or only lesser damage to the facilities and buildings than within halls. If, however, relatively large quantities of the substances worked and processed in these facilities escape, considerable environmental damage can be generated.
It is therefore necessary to monitor such facilities often operating completely automatically over long periods of time for their faultless operation and to check for leakages of the pipes and the facility parts as well as for external or other influences. This takes place on control consoles in a room of the plant as well as by visual inspection outdoors. The attentiveness of the personnel used for these functions frequently lapses over the course of the observation time because such monitoring tasks are perceived by the personnel as tiring and also as boring.
The invention avoids the disadvantages of prior art. It is the task of the invention to carry out cost-effectively with simple means and in simple manner the monitoring of such facilities in an automated way and thus to avoid damages.
The invention comprises that by means of microphones or other acoustic sensors, cameras and electronic odor sensors electronic data are generated and that these are supplied to an evaluation device with comparison circuitry, memories for electrically acquired data and display as well as report-generation devices, in which the temporary acquired electronic measurement values are compared with measurement values of an initial measurement and/or of the preceding measurement and [which] trigger a report process when the given deviation values are exceeded.
For this purpose a device is used which comprises microphones or other acoustic sensors, cameras, electronic odor sensors and an evaluation device with comparison circuitry, memories for electronically acquired data and display and/or report-generating devices, wherein the evaluation device comprises comparison circuits in which the temporary acquired electronic measurement values are compared with measurement values of an initial measurement and of the preceding measurement and, if a given deviation values is exceeded, a report process is triggered.
This makes it possible to carry out measurements entirely without personnel and to evaluate them completely automatically in an electronic system which, in the event of any irregularities due to a defect of the facility, outputs a report.
The measurements required for this purpose and their evaluation is usefully carried out at specific time intervals. The measured values obtained are either compared with the measurements recorded in the last measurement(s) or a comparison with a measurement is carried out which was recorded when the facility was taken into operation.
In the case of facilities to be monitored, frequently a multiplicity of measurement sites must be set up. Their number can be reduced if the locations of the microphones, cameras and/or electronic odor sensors are changed after each measurement. For this purpose it is useful if measuring instruments are mounted on one or several vehicles which carry measurement and observation instruments and which can be moved on tracks.
Considerable problems in the implementation of these measurements and observations in the case of facilities constructed outdoors can occur due to climate effects, in particular wind and rain; but also through external effects occurring in the vicinity, for example, from agriculture, road traffic, facilities of the chemical industry etc. It is therefore useful to correct the electronic measurement values obtained from the acoustic sensors and electronic odor sensors before they are supplied further to the evaluation station with electronic measurement values obtained from acoustic comparison sensors and electronic comparison odor sensors. For this purpose serves a correction circuit which, on the one hand, is connected to the acoustic sensors, cameras and electronic odor sensors serving for monitoring the facility parts and, on the other, to acoustic comparison sensors and electronic comparison odor sensors. The counter-phase superposition of the signals from the acoustic comparison sensors and electric comparison odor sensors onto the signals from the acoustic measurement sensors and odor sensors can eliminate disturbances through wind, rain and other external influences.
In this measuring and inspection work as cameras can be used, in particular video sensors and infrared cameras, and in the evaluation system locations of increased or decreased temperature can be identified. Due to the escape through a fine hole of a medium under pressure in a pipeline a noise occurs at this location and considerable cooling. The video sensors are primarily used for detecting the presence of non-authorized persons and natural events such as fallen trees, fires, etc.
As acoustic sensor can also be used an artificial head equipped with microphones in order to locate the direction from which sound is coming.
In this measuring and inspecting work as microphones can be used solid-structure microphones which are attached on pipes, machines, bearings, pumps, pressure generators and similar facility parts.
But it is also possible to use as acoustic sensors directional microphones which are directed toward specific facility parts or whose effective direction extends next to specific facility parts, for example next to straight pipes to be monitored in which sound is detected occurring due to escaping medium.
It is useful to provide a possibility procedurally and in the circuit by which, following a report of a noticeable event, the flow of the automatically running measuring process is interrupted and measuring instruments, in particular an infrared and/or video camera, can be driven under manual control to the site reported as being spurious or can be directed to this site.
It can also be of advantage if at the site reported as being spurious a control substance is applied. For this purpose, the container under pressure could be provided with a liquid forming foam which, triggered by the monitor circuit, sprays the liquid onto the site which has been noticed as being suspicious such that subsequently, for example with the aid of a video camera, it is possible to observe visually whether or not foam forms in the event of escaping gas at the conspicuous site.
The monitoring device works usefully with a circuit for initiating the measuring processes at different locations of the facility to be monitored at specific time intervals. This makes possible that all measuring points are checked successively at specific time intervals. A circuit for the continuously repeated initiation of the measuring cycle is therein of advantage.
The number of the measuring instruments to be used can be minimized through the use of movable, shiftable and/or pivotable supports of the acoustic sensors, cameras and/or electronic odor sensors and a circuit for changing the measuring site between each two measurements, and thereby the purchase expenditures for such a device can be reduced.